


Love in an Elevator

by mshopevandyne



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Arguments, Avengers - Freeform, Elevators, F/M, Intervention, Panic Attack, after aou, but it's mostly clintasha, clint and nat need to use their words, they're in it, thor should be a couples councelor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-14
Updated: 2016-04-14
Packaged: 2018-06-02 03:58:18
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6549709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mshopevandyne/pseuds/mshopevandyne
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For Clintasha week, satisfying these scenarios (bc I'm the worst and couldn't pick just one): Clint and Nat get stuck in an elevator together, and Clint tells Nat he loves her, and Nat rejects him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love in an Elevator

**Author's Note:**

> This is the longest bit of writing I've done in several years, so feel free to let me know if you liked it or didn't. It was written in a day, so there's bound to be mistakes and I apologize in advance. Come find me on [tumblr](http://www.steverorgers.tumblr.com) and we can talk clintasha <3

The one thing the Avengers can always count on is Strike Team Delta never getting into an argument. Thor and Tony fight like children sometimes, throwing dirty socks and apples from the kitchen at each other, while Bruce and Steve bicker about who got to use the gym that day (Bruce likes to use the space for yoga). Rhodey and Tony fight like brothers, Rhodey pushing Tony’s hands away from the engine he’s working on with Tony insistently whining that Rhodey is ‘doing it all wrong’. Rhodey just smirks at his best friend and says “You say that now”. Tony would later eat his words in the testing space and clap Rhodey on the back, with a huge grin on his face. As big as Avengers Tower is, quarters seem close when you’re surrounded by such big personalities.

Even so, Clint and Natasha were the only two Avengers who never seemed to argue with each other. They would share gentle smiles and easy banter with each other, two puzzle pieces that fit perfectly together. Even when it came to choosing which movie to watch for the night, they always supported each other; Nat would suggest they watch Mulan for the seventh time that month, and Clint would only shake his head with a rueful grin and grab it for her from the basket of DVDs near the television. Their relationship was as solid as a rock.

Which was why it came as such a shock to the Avengers when it took a complete about-face, seemingly overnight. 

“Clint? Is everything... okay?” Steve asked delicately over breakfast, after Natasha had waltzed in to the kitchen, took one look at Clint, and waltzed right back out. 

Clint looked up from his cheerios with a tired and absent expression. “What was that?”

Steve blinked a few times and tried again. “Well, it’s just... we couldn’t help but notice... Natasha, s-she-”.Steve was trying to put it delicately, to not make a big deal out of the situation.

Sam came to Steve’s aid. He walked around the island and sat down on the stool next to Clint. “Dude, Natasha took one look at your ugly mug and then practically ran out of here. Something happen between you two last night?”

Clint stuck his nose further into his bowl of cheerios. “Nope. Nat n’ I are _peachy_.”

Sam and Steve just looked at each other apprehensively before clapping Clint on the back and walking out. 

“I’m not touching that situation with a ten-foot pole. The last time I tried to get in the middle of Tasha’s business she hid my wings for three days. When I finally found them they were painted neon green. They glowed in the dark, Steve. Have you ever tried to be stealthy with glow in the dark wings?”

“That sounds really tough, buddy.” Steve said, giving Sam a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. 

"In my defense, your pack makes a ton of noise anyway, being sneaky was already difficult for you before I got a hold of it,” Natasha rounded a corner ahead of Sam and Steve and stopped them in the hallway.

“I still call it a low blow, Romanoff. You don’t mess with a man’s wings.”

“Then keep your feathers out of my business, Wilson,” Natasha smiled sweetly, patting Sam on the cheek before pushing through them to head back toward the kitchen.

This time, Natasha was a little more prepared to see Clint, who was still eating his cheerios and chatting quietly with Thor. Gritting her teeth, she marched up to the cabinets and grabbed herself a bowl, shutting the door with a little more force than necessary. She made her way over to the silverware drawer and made an effort to make as much noise as possible, shoving the forks and spoons around so that they clanked and clashed together, before finally selecting one and shoving the drawer closed with a crash.

To his credit, Thor didn’t look annoyed at Natasha, just surprised; Natasha was someone who ghosted around the tower. This was probably the most noise Thor had ever heard her make, besides actually speaking. He looked over to Clint, whose nose had sunk further into his cereal.

“Is everything alright, Natasha? You seem to be agitated about something.”

Natasha smiled tightly at Thor. “Everything is wonderful, Thor.”

Clint snorted into his cereal, milk spraying up into his face and hair. Natasha shot him a look of disgust while he wiped his face with his hand. He looked up at her, clenched his jaw, and then went to drop his bowl in the sink, where it clattered and sent more milk flying, spattering the counters and his plain purple t-shirt. He cursed, just barely refraining from kicking the cabinets with his foot; Pepper would have killed him if he scuffed the wood.

He heard Natasha tisk, quietly but just loud enough for him to hear. He whirled. “You got something to say to me, Natasha?” His voice remained at a neutral volume - he didn’t sound angry, just irritated and tired. He didn’t wait for her to respond, instead grabbing a sponge from the sink. Thor got up from his stool and together, they started to clean to milk mess up.

“Just that you’ve got a little something on your shirt.” Natasha walked over to the cereal cabinet and began rifling around, moving boxes out of the way.

Clint squeezed the mopped up milk from the sponge into the sink. His knuckles turned white. “Thank you for informing me.”

The silence in the kitchen became deafening. Thor was wiping the same bit of counter space for the sixth time, hardly daring to look up. 

“Where are the cheerios?”

At that, Thor did look up to see Natasha, hands on her hips, glaring at Clint.

The only indication that Clint had heard her was the tightening of his jaw. 

“You did not finish the box of cheerios, Clinton.”

“Pretty sure I did.”

Thor scurried out of the kitchen before they started throwing the silverware.

~~~~~~~~

A few weeks passed with very similar behavior; Natasha continued to be irritable, rude, and angry, while Clint continued to be quiet, temperamental, and tired. The team refused to ask what the hell was going on with the two, knowing that it would only start another shouting match between them. Clint and Nat fought about anything and everything; what movies they wanted to watch, leaving their stuff around the tower, chewing too loudly, sneezing, taking up too much space in the hallways...

Fighting between the other Avengers drastically decreased as their attention diverted to their two friends bickering and arguing nonstop. Finally, Tony had enough. 

“Barton, you gotta tell us what the hell’s going on with you and your girlfriend.”

Clint looked up from the book he was pretending to read, blinking up at all of the Avengers now crowding around his chair. “Wassat?”

“You and Romanoff. It’s like cats and dogs with you guys. We’re all afraid to say more than two words to the both of you without you flying off the handle at us.”

Clint blinked a few times, his eyebrows furrowed in confusion. “I have no idea what you guys are talking about. What is this? Am I at an intervention or something?” Clint asked, looking around him. It surprised him how concerned they all looked; even Scott and Wanda were there, the newest additions to the team.

Rhodey sighed. “A few weeks ago you and Romanoff were the greatest couple. You guys never argued. And now it’s like you can’t stand to look at one another. We’re just worried, man.”

Clint scowled into his book. “Romanoff and I are not, have not, and never will be a couple.”

The Avengers went silent, and gaped at each other. “Wait, so you and Natasha weren’t dating?” Bruce asked, his head cocked to the side.

“Nope.” Clint said, his lips popping on the ‘p’ sound.

“Barton, what happened? Just tell us. We’re your team, we’re here to help,” Sam said, coming to sit on the arm of Clint’s chair.

Clint closed his book and got out of the chair. “Well, you can’t help, so just leave it alone. Romanoff and I are none of your concern.” He stalked out of the room.

“Well, that went about as well as we all expected,” Steve sighed.

“Maybe it wasn’t the most sensitive approach?” Bruce asked, looking at Tony.

Tony shrugged. “Probably not, but we need to get this problem sorted out one way or another. Our team is going to suffer if we keep feeling like we have to tip toe around one another.”

“It’s really hard to believe that he and Tasha were never a couple... Although now that I think about it, she’s never said anything to me about them being together. I just assumed,” Pepper said, taking Clint’s vacant spot.

“Perhaps,” Thor said, “that is the crux of the problem.”

“Except for the fact that Barton said they’d never been together, meaning not even in the past,” Tony said.

“You misunderstand me. What I meant was that perhaps the problem is that they are _not together_.” 

The Avengers all took a second to let that sink in. 

“You think one of them was rejected?” Wanda asked. Thor shrugged.

“Well, whatever happened, we’ve got to get them to work through their problems somehow,” Tony said.

Steve looked at Tony. “What do you have in mind?” 

All Tony could do was grin.

~~~~~~~~

If Natasha hadn’t been so engrossed in the text she was sending to Bucky, she might not have stepped into the elevator with Clint at all. The doors opened silently, and Clint watched as Nat walked in, typing away on her phone.  
It wasn’t until the doors closed that Clint quietly cleared his throat. Natasha looked up, saw Clint, and then immediately looked toward the now closed doors. She sighed heavily. “Perfect.”

Before the elevator could even move two floors up, it came to an abrupt halt. JARVIS’ voice rang out through the speaker. “ _Agents Barton and Romanoff, please remain calm. The elevator will become operational once more when Mr. Stark gives the override command._ ”

“The hell?” Clint said, peering at the ceiling and then at the control panel. He held down the intercom button. “Stark? What’s going on?”

“Hey guys. Something weird is going on with the elevator. Give me a few minutes.”

Clint ground his teeth together, and then peered over his shoulder at Nat. He’d never seen her look quite so pissed off before.

“Hey, it isn’t like I planned this, alright?”

She scoffed, ran both of her hands through her hair. “Well you could’ve said something before the elevator doors closed.”

“You could have been paying closer attention.”

“Well you could have-” she forced herself to stop. “This is ridiculous.”

Clint mumbled something under his breath.

“Did you just say _I’m_ ridiculous? Are you five, Barton?”

Clint rolled his eyes. “It’s not the end of the world, Romanoff. It’s only gonna take Stark a minute and then we can get the hell away from each other.”

Natasha laughed without humor. “I can’t wait that long.” She looked up at the elevator’s ceiling; it was smooth steel, save for the overhead latch. It was too high for Natasha to reach.  
“You gonna help me get out of here or what?” Natasha asked, not bothering to look at Clint and keeping her eyes trained on her only means of escape.

When Clint didn’t answer, Natasha looked back down. He was staring at her, his expression carefully blank. 

“What?”

“You really want to get away from me that bad, huh?”

Natasha had to consciously stop herself from squirming under his gaze. Trying not to let the guilt show, she clenched her jaw. “Don’t be so melodramatic Clinton, and give me a damn lift.”

She tried to ignore the flicker of hurt she saw in his eyes as he cupped his hands together and lowered them enough to where she could step up. 

Just as she reached the hatch and was about to push up, they heard a metallic clicking sound come from right above them, almost like a lock sliding into place. 

Confused, Natasha began to push on the escape hatch. It gave a little, but something prevented it from opening all the way.

“Mother _fu_ -”

“ _Ah, ah, ah. Language, Romanoff._ ” Tony’s voice echoed from the speakers.

Natasha lithely jumped from Clint’s hand and slammed a fist down over the intercom button. “Stark, get us the hell out of here.”

“ _Not until you two kiss and make up._ ”

Natasha punched the control panel agan and growled in frustration. She turned around to see Clint leaning against the opposite wall with his arms crossed, staring at the floor.

“Are you just going to stand there?”

He looked up at her and cocked an eyebrow. “What exactly am I supposed to do here, Natasha? They set us up. There’s no way out of here unless those chuckleheads out there want us out. And to do that we’ve got to work through our shit.”

Natasha ground her teeth and kicked at the door. “There’s no shit to work through.”

Clint laughed without humor. “As much as I’ve been trying to deny it, that’s a complete load of bullshit and you know it.”

Natasha remained silent, staring at the elevator doors, hiding her face as Clint peered at her.

Moments passed in complete silence. “I’ve already spoken my two cents on this... thing, issue, whatever you want to call it. I honestly have nothing more to say that I haven’t already told you, Natasha, so if you aren’t going to talk then w-”

“ _How dare you._ ”

It was spoken through clenched teeth, barely above a whisper. Clint closed his mouth with an audible snap, barely daring to breathe. Finally.

“How _dare_ you?” Natasha said again, louder this time. She still wouldn’t turn around to face him, but she was visibly shaking now, the knuckles on her clenched fists turning white.

“How dare I do what, Natasha?” Clint asked quietly.

She whirled, and then advanced on him, pointed one outstretched finger at his rapidly rising and falling chest. “How dare you put this shit on _me_ , Clint! You had no right, no goddamned r-”

“To tell you how I felt? I didn’t have a right to tell you that I lo-”

She pushed against his chest, forced the end of his sentence to cut off from surprise. “Don’t.”

He exhaled. “It’s the truth.”

“Yeah well, maybe I didn’t want to know the truth. Goddamn it Clint, couldn’t you just leave well enough alone? Everything was fine, everything was fucking _dandy_ until you had to go and run your obnoxious mouth and tell me that, that you...” She was pacing, walking the length of the tiny elevator in tight circles.

“That I love you?”

She gasped, there was no other word for it, paused her hypnotic stalking of the elevator to breathe, to suck in the air that had been punched from her as the whole situation, this moment she had been dreading for weeks, finally caught up with her. It was too much, too much, too much-.

Clint went from angry and hurt to concerned faster than she could blink, going up to her and placing his hands on her shoulders, trying to catch her eye. “Nat. Shit. Are you okay?”

She pushed his arms away, and then rested her palms on her knees and dropped her head. She breathed in, counting to ten, and then breathed back out, repeating the process until she felt her heartrate return to normal. She didn’t notice Clint put his hand on her back until she straightened up, rolling her shoulders and breathing deeply. She couldn’t look him in the eye.  
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have pushed, I should’ve just kept my mouth shut” Clint said, looking down and away from her. Shame was written all over him, and a little piece of her broke. That was her fault.

“Clint, I-” she swallowed, clenched her teeth. “It’s not you, it’s... it’s this whole situation. I... I’m not equipped to- to deal... What if, if...” She couldn’t find the right words to explain how she was feeling.

“It just... It scares the shit out of me,” she said, in a whisper so quiet he almost didn’t hear her.

He was silent for a moment. “You don’t think it scares me too?”

She looked up at him, and he looked at her expectantly, like he couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought of that.  
“It’s fucking terrifying Nat, especially given our line of work. Something could happen, to you or to me. There are no guarantees here, no certainties. But I’m not so afraid of losing something that I’m not willing to go for it, or to at least try. And if there is one certainty here, it’s the fact that I’m in love with you, and I’m done pretending like I’m not. And if that’s not... If you don’t...” He clenched his jaw, looked down. “If you don’t want that, then we need to figure something out.”

Natasha swallowed again, and breathed deep through her nose. _Get it together, Romanoff. Show some damn spine_.

Slowly, she stepped toward him, held out her hand and grabbed his where it was resting at his side. She watched their hands as her fingers slowly curled around his.

She released the breath she was holding. “I love you too, you moron.”  
He blinked at her, his eyes going wide, until he finally broke out into the biggest grin she’d ever seen him give.  
“Yeah?”

She couldn’t help the small grin that spread over her face. "Yeah.”

Clint laughed, positively beaming and _giddy_ , pulling her closer by their entwined hands, his free one wrapping around her and squeezing her close. 

His hand stroked up and down her back, and she couldn’t stop the small shiver that escaped her at his touch. He pulled away to cup her face in his hands, his infectious grin still plastered on his face.

This was the moment. The moment she hadn’t let herself imagine. As her eyes instinctively fell to his lips, she reveled in the way she felt: terrified, but tingly at the same time, and safe, standing here with him, her partner, her teammate, her best friend.

He leaned in just as she did, and when their lips met there was this _lock_ that promised never to be opened again. It was soft, and short, and so, so sweet. And not nearly enough.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, and he grabbed her waist and walked her backward, all the while deepening the kiss, exploring what they’ve missed for so many years.  
Neither of them heard the hatch on the ceiling unlock. As Clint’s hands made the way into Natasha’s hair and as she explored the contours of his back, the elevator began to move again. He pressed her deeper into the elevator door, getting as close to each other as possible, before they opened and the couple toppled to the floor.

“Thank God that’s over,” Tony said, walking away from the elevator. “I’ll be so happy never to hear Romanoff call you Clinton again.”


End file.
